Sen. Rosen signs on to tax-hike bill

A proposal by two first-term Republicans to double the state's tobacco tax has attracted the support of a veteran Republican.

Sen. Julie Rosen, R-Fairmont, chair of the Senate Energy, Utilities and Telecommunications Committee, is a co-sponsor of the tobacco tax-hike bill. The bill is sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Carla Nelson, R-Rochester, and in the House by Rep. Mike Benson, R-Rochester.

The bill would tack on $1.29 in taxes per pack of cigarettes, using the increased revenue -- about $320 million every two years -- to repay debts to public schools and to reduce business property taxes. The bill is a departure from the Republican-controlled Legislature's opposition to raising any taxes.

Taxes Committee chair Sen. Julianne Ortman, R-Chanhassen, said the bill "didn't get a lot of support" when Nelson suggested it last year.

Minnesota's tobacco tax is $1.23 per pack. Nelson said the state has high business taxes and moderate tobacco taxes and added, "I'd like to see that reversed.''

Rosen said she sees this as a tobacco-prevention effort, such as the state's smoking ban and a 2005 75-cents-per-pack increase. "I view it as prevention,'' she said, citing studies that have shown a direct correlation between the tobacco tax and smoking rates. Tax rates that drive up the cost are particularly effective in keeping teenagers from taking up the habit, Rosen said.

A Duluth native who just barely lost Virginia's GOP gubernatorial primary said that politicians have not gone far enough in condemning the left for violence during a rally of white nationalists in Charlottesville. "I think that the left is going to try to use this as an excuse to crack down on conservative free speech," said Corey Stewart. "I think they're going to try to use this as an excuse to remove more historical monuments."